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7 unusual facts about television pilot


Addams Family Reunion

This film also served as a pilot of sorts for the television series The New Addams Family, showing that a lush theatrical look (similar to the Paramount films) could be achieved on a much smaller budget.

Clive Gibbons

A pilot was made, but not picked up by any television networks.

Giselle Loren

She also played Buffy in the unaired pilot episode of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated series and she would have reprised the role of Buffy for the series had it been produced.

John Bahler

Two of the album cuts were re-recorded by Bähler for the pilot of The Partridge Family.

Jon Stone

He wrote the pilot script, and was one of the three original producers of the program; he later served as an executive producer for many years.

Laura Sinclair

An alluring woman who sold real estate, Laura would do anything to close a deal, including using her appeal to seduce the buyer, which is exactly what she does in the pilot when she strips down to her navy blue bra and panties and offers herself to entice her buyer.

Shaun Majumder

Majumder has also starred in the CBC comedy pilot Hatching, Matching and Dispatching and the short film Plain Brown Rapper, as well as playing Kumar's brother in the 2004 comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.


Bernard Fein

He is best known for co-creating and associate producing the 1960s American television sitcom, Hogan's Heroes; a show which he also occasionally wrote for, including the pilot episode.

Bert Granet

Granet worked with Desilu Productions and was instrumental in getting Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone on the air in the late 1950s when he produced his successful pilot pitch The Time Element for Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse.

Canterbury's Law

The show was created by Dave Erickson and executive produced by Denis Leary, Jim Serpico, Walon Green, John Kane, and Mike Figgis, who also directed the pilot.

Co-Ed Fever

The pilot episode was aired as a "special preview" at 10:30 pm(et) on February 4, immediately after the airing of the movie Rocky; however, the series was canceled in the interim between this airing and the scheduled premiere date (February 19).

George Burns Comedy Week

The show is probably best known for two particular segments, one being "Christmas Carol II" in which an adult Tiny Tim has come to exhibit many of the characteristics once defining his father's old boss, Ebenezer Scrooge, and another starring Valerie Perrine and Harvey Korman in what proved to be the pilot for their short lived sitcom, Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills.

If My Friends Could See Me Now

The Gwen Verdon recording of "If My Friends Could See Me Now" was utilized as the theme song for the pilot episode of the CBS-TV sitcom The Nanny although an original song entitled "The Nanny Named Fran" served as the theme song for the series' subsequent episodes: airings of The Nannys pilot episode in syndication utilize "The Nanny Named Fran" as that episode's theme song rather than "If My Friends Could See Me Now".

IL-Informed

The half-hour long pilot was produced by PBS member station WTTW (Channel 11) and premiered locally on Sunday, May 4, 2008.

Jeff Bleckner

His most recent project is the pilot for Conspiracy, a potential series for the 2007-08 season, starring Lisa Sheridan as a Washington, D.C. attorney attempting to undercover the secrets of a pharmaceutical company she successfully defended.

Joan Hess

The first book of the Arly Hanks series, Malice in Maggody, was the basis for the 1993 CBS television pilot Arly Hanks.

Lanigan's Rabbi

After a successful pilot film based on Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, the first novel in the Rabbi David Small series, aired in 1976, Lanigan's Rabbi was produced as a series of 90-minute telefilms beginning in January 1977.

Lewis Smith

In 1987, he played the title role in the failed television pilot The Man Who Fell to Earth which was based on the David Bowie film from the 1970s.

Marie Horton

Created by DOOL creator Ted Corday, actress Maree Cheatham is most recognized in the role, originating it on the debut episode of the serial airing November 8, 1965 and last appearing on June 28, 2010.

Mark Patton

He also starred in a television pilot with Chuck Connors entitled Kelsey's Son, which was never picked up.

Mega Man Anniversary Collection

The PS2 version features the original Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon pilot episode, while the GameCube version has an interview with Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune.

Meghan Ory

In March 2013, Ory was cast as the female lead opposite Josh Holloway in the CBS drama pilot Intelligence, which co-stars Marg Helgenberger.

Mr. Dugan

Lear, however, still believed in the concept, and filmed a new pilot tilted Onward and Upward, with essentially the same script and cast—except with John Amos (as a black former pro football star running for the United States Congress) replacing Arthur.

People Are Alike All Over

The original pilot of Star Trek ("The Cage", later reworked into the two-part episode "The Menagerie") included plot points similar to that touched upon in this episode, particularly the aspect of humans being put on display for study.

Phil Abraham

He won the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a One Hour Series for his work on the pilot of Mad Men and has been nominated for three other Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series for his work on The Sopranos.

Ronald Stein

He also occasionally provided scores for major studio productions such as Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969) and Richard Rush's Getting Straight (1970), as well as the pilot episode of the short-lived television series, Gunslinger(1961).

Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi!

Although no anime series of Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! exists, a pilot original video animation (OVA) was shown as part of the "Jump Super Anime Tour" of 1998 with pilots for One Piece and Hunter × Hunter.

Snooky Lanson

In January 1960, Crossroads TV Productions videotaped a pilot in Springfield, Missouri for a proposed pop music-variety series called Snooky Lanson Time. Guests were Brenda Lee, the Anita Kerr Singers, Betty Ann Grove and Paul Mitchell's instrumental combo.

Who's the Caboose?

The screenplay by Sam Seder and Charles Fisher depicts a romantically involved couple (Silverman and Seder) who travel separately from Manhattan to Los Angeles to attempt to secure a television series role during "pilot season," a set period of months when producers cast new shows.

Without Breasts There Is No Paradise

However, with the departure of NBC Entertainment chairman Ben Silverman in 2009, it never came to air or even went beyond having a pilot filmed.


see also

Burl Barer

In 2013, Barer served as a consultant to the television pilot series, "The Saint," starring Adam Rayner as Simon Templar.

Cameron Daddo

In 2000, he also starred in Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story as Jack Garrison, an American writer who had an important role during World War I. Daddo appeared as Samuel Clemens in the 2003 television pilot Riverworld based on the popular novels.

Chris Croucher

In 2007 Chris completed a television pilot entitled Twenty Something, based on the book by Iain Hollingshead.

David Sherlock

He also co-wrote Jake's Journey (a 1988 television pilot for CBS which featured Peter Cook, Chapman and others), which was never broadcast.

Eric Ro

The web show airs on October 4, 2010, on the SyFy channel as a one hour television pilot along with being released in its original 8 episodic form on iTunes, Xbox Live, and the PlayStation Network.

High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane

In 1966, Four Star Television aired a High Noon half-hour television pilot entitled "The Clock Strikes Noon Again", with Peter Fonda as the adult son of Will Kane.

Lincoln Lewis

Early during 2013 US Pilot season, Lewis was cast in ABC and Warner Bros. drama television pilot "Westside" directed by McG.

Luke Greenfield

Greenfield directed the critically acclaimed television pilot, "Aliens in America" and produced the film, "Role Models".

Once Upon a Texas Train

Note: The Texas Rangers characters originally appeared almost twenty years before in the unsold television pilot and TV-movie broadcast in 1969 on ABC, The Over-the-Hill Gang, which was followed by The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again (the sequel didn't feature the Captain Oren Hayes character) starring Walter Brennan as Nash Crawford, Pat O'Brien as Captain Oren Hayes, Chill Wills as Gentleman George Asque and Edgar Buchanan as Jason Fitch.

Paul Galloway

The columns became the source for a book published under the same name that was also turned into a stage musical directed by Robert Falls at the Wisdom Bridge Theatre and a television pilot shot for the Fox Broadcasting Company by Bruce Helford.

Sammy Jackson

Television writer Larry Brody recalled meeting Jackson and writing a television pilot for him.

Thomas Scoville

Two major works render an insider's perspective on life in technology startups: The satirical Silicon Valley Tarot published in 1998 and Silicon Follies, an online serial novel running on Salon.com in 1999, eventually finding its way to hardcover publication by Pocket Books and a television pilot by Ron Howard's Imagine Television.